Busta the reached the semifinals of a second consecutive Masters at the Monte-Carlo Masters. He then reached the semifinals of a third consecutive tournament at the Estoril Open before losing to Frances Tiafoe.

In the third round of the French Open , he was defeated by Macro Cecchinato. He suffered opening round losses at both the Shanghai and Paris Masters.

Busta opened his season at the Auckland Open , facing David Ferrer , who retired just two games into the match. He was then defeated in a close three set match against Jan-Lennard Struff.

At the Australian Open , Busta was seeded 23rd. Busta narrowly won the first two sets before losing a close third set tiebreak. Nishikori took the fourth, and the fifth eventually proceeded to a tiebreaker.

Busta lead the tiebreak until 8—5, when a late call from a linesperson sparked an argument between Busta and the umpire.

Ultimately, Nishikori was awarded the point, and went on to win the next four points, winning the tiebreak 10—8. The match had lasted over five hours.

In a post-match conference, he apologized for his outburst. Pablo is currently 3— He got his first win against a top 10 player after 17 attempts.

Retrieved 3 June Retrieved 10 June Retrieved 6 September Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten Spanish male singles tennis players as of 7 December After the match, Carreno Busta stopped only briefly to hug his opponent before slamming his bag on to the court and abusing at the umpire.

A furious Carreno Busta lost it as he went down in a five-set thriller with the Japanese star on Monday night. Afterwards, he was tearful and full of remorse, saying: After being two points from victory in a fifth set tiebreaker, Carreno Busta lost five straight, including one where he berated the chair umpire for not ruling a replay.

A line judge called it out, after Nishikori had hit the ball down the line, and Carreno Busta was nowhere close to playing it.

After being two points from victory in a fifth set tiebreaker, Carreno Busta right lost five straight, including one where he berated the chair umpire for not ruling a replay.

He challenged the decision, and Hawk-Eye showed the ball hitting the line, but the point remained with Nishikori. The eighth-seeded Nishikori stays to play six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, but Carreno Busta is out of the tournament.

Nishikori pictured heroically fought back from two sets down to win the match at the Australian Open last night. Spaniard Carreno Busta lays on the floor following his long five-hour match in the fourth round in Australia.

An exhausted Nishikori pictured gives a thumbs up to the fans after winning the fourth-round encounter.

Nishikori eventually won 8 , , 4 , , 8. It was the second time the US Open finalist has had to come back from two sets down in the tournament.

Djokovic, meanwhile, overcame a couple of tumbles to the court and a series of energy-sapping baseline exchanges to beat No.